The last rays of dusk lingered for a moment longer, as they swept across the royal mountains of Esperanore, across the slopes of Aasgard, embracing the fields of morning glory one last time for the day. For a second, Ashamar thought the twilight tricked him. Rubbing his eyes, he reset his looking glance, before scanning again at the far distance. It wasn’t a trick, a lone shadow seemed to be ascending the steep slopes of Aasgard, which was bad enough in daylight. “Must have a wish for the broken”, Ashamar thought before running to report what he had seen.

***

Taking a deep breath once again, Lance made his way up the pass. He vaguely remembered something about a hidden danger right in the middle of it, but couldn’t recall what it was. So he stuck to the extreme right, it was the only viable path anyways given he wanted to stay unnoticed as long as possible. Fading into the shadows, the direct path made his task laborious. As he stopped to take a deep breath, he couldn’t help notice a ripple in the stillness surrounding him. “furqkizbad”, he cursed to himself. “I expected to make it half way through”, he barked at no one in particular and made haste. It won’t be long. The arrows of illumination would light up the whole pass, putting him in the limelight.. He would be a sitting duck for any watcher with his sling on. He was hoping the questions would buy him time. Hope, his strange double-edged sword had that effect sometimes, but there was a price to pay.

As he reached the misty ponds at the top, he could hear the whispers and murmurs racing across the ridge-line as the arrows reached the zenith bursting into a hundred tiny sparks, moonlighting the fiery slopes and the high pass. “Reveal thyself” the first gong was sounded. Must hurry now, he thought as he came by a fork, one leading him to the towering royal gardens and into the palace, the other melding into the core of the enchanting lands of Evermore. This was as far as he could go. Stepping off the trail, he flung his right shoulders to gently lay something on the floor and jumped high into the air. Unsheathing his sword, he caught one of the sparks and reverse springed it to further accelerate his jump. Almost time now, he remarked slowing down as he let gravity do its job. Heartstring, hit the mark he said, as he guided his sword towards the ground. Thank the light, the skybornes had taught him this neat little trick. Everything depended on the landing now.

***

“Light have mercy” came the second. “Is that the First Prince lying in the ground?” someone’s recognizing voice raised its voice. “who/what’s that riding to the ground?”, someone else shouted. Lance braced himself as he set reversing back the spark to soften the blow. A spark flew out of the ground, where blade touched skin and suddenly the figure was no longer there. Only He was gone in the blink of an eye. And as everyone turned, trying to wrap their heads around what had happened, it was perhaps young Ashamar who first pointed and shouted, “What are those stringy things leading to the prince?”

“Heartstrings” exclaimed Chidai, at the same time several gasps went up through the crowd. The threads surrounding the prince turned a shade blue under the moonlight. Soon the threads that touched the ground bounced back, crystallizing and wrapping around the prince to reveal a pyramidal tomb. “It can’t be” retorted Darari. “But only Lance can use that” the words shot out from Tenzin before he realized he had said it out loud.

Tensions creeped as the nightly calm once again hugged the land, making everyone question what their eyes had seen. It was real alright. The stillness returned but the faint blue glow in the distance served as a reminder for everyone who was there. People turned towards the high balconies, as Tenzin Bog stood up, carefully weighing the words in his head.